Monday, 16 June 2014

Images Of A Distant Soil

Cerebus is the first, the best, and the longest self-publishing comic ever. First published by Dave way back in 1977, Gerhard came aboard as background artist / inker / partner in the mid-eighties.

After over 200 issues (making Cerebus the longest run by a creator in comic book history, they're still at work, plugging along toward their goal of 300 issues with zeal and uncompromising vision.

For all the people that think I'm nuts for chugging at A Distant Soil all these years, ladies and gentlemen, I present Dave Sim and Gerhard.

When they faxed me this piece of Aeren and Jessica in a tender moment as seen by little Liana, I took one look at it and laughed so hard I spewed milk out of my nose. Good job boys.

Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil was a frontrunner of the '80s indie comics scene. The sci-fi/adventure series originally broke several barriers: Colleen was one of the first women in the indie comics scene to write and draw creator-owned comics and A Distant Soil broke ground by featuring openly gay characters as series stars. After a recent hiatus, Colleen returned to complete A Distant Soil (with publisher Image Comics/Shadowline) and A Distant Soil #39 appeared in April 2013. The series is scheduled to conclude at #50.The restored collections A Distant Soil Vol 1: The Gathering and Vol 2: The Ascendant are available directly from Colleen Doran.

4 comments:

There's so much to admire in that piece: the perfect facial expressions; the spot-on dialogue; Liana's delightful body language; Dave's hugely-evocative lettering. And just look at the way Jessica's toes disappear into the fluff of that rug!